All language subtitles for The.Coconut.Revolution.ENsubtitles

This is the Pacific Ocean, a few
hundred miles north-east of Australia.

Members of the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army (BRA)

cram their boats with much
needed supplies of medicine and fuel,

and prepare to set off
from the Solomon Islands for home.

But first of all, there is
a prayer for safe passage.

Their prayers I know will be needed,

because home for
these BRA guerillas

is the little-known
island of Boungainville,

with their fighting an even less
well-known war of independence

with Papua New Guinea.

For seven years, Papua New Guinea
has blockaded the island.

Its gun-boats and helicopters
patrol these waters

with shoot-to-kill orders,

which means we have
a three-hour gauntlet to run.

I'm here because this is a war
for which Britain is also responsible.

It was the huge mine that
a British company dug in Bougainville

which provoked the fighting

and it was Britain's
casual redrawing of the border

a century ago that turned it into war.

Breaking down on that border, as we
enter Papua New Guinea sea space,

seems about the worst place to do so.

I scan the horizon for gunboats,

knowing we are carrying so much fuel,

that just a stray bullet
will be enough to fry us.

The horizon however stay serene.

This is a route
that has cost many lives.

Yet it is Bougainville's
only channel to the outside world.

It is also the only way in

to the longest and bloodiest
conflict in the Pacific

since World War Two.

Just as we near the island,
the horizon loses its serenity.

We breathe with relief when it
turns out to be another BRA boat.

But at least I've had a tiny taste

of what the Bougainvillians
go through every day.

This is the story of an unsung people

who took on Papua New Guinea,
Australia

and the biggest mining company
in the world,

who started by fighting helicopter
gunships with bows and arrows

and have lost the tenth
of their population,

and yet who manage
to create what may be

the world's first true eco-revolution.

The Coconut Revolution

The next morning

we find ourselves in the hands

of Bougainville Revolutionary Army
commander

Ishmael Torohama.

Our main goal is to get
to president Francis Ona,

the elusive man who started the revolution.

But for the moment, Ishmael's
capable hands will certainly do.

I'm amazed to find him
driving everywhere,

as the fuel the BRA get
into their boats can't go far,

but that's a trick
I won't find out till later.

Ishmael was a mechanic
before the war.

Now people call him
the Bougainville ninja.

It makes my arms feel good.

So I could handle the M60.

I use two guns.

At the moment, my other arm,
the injured one on the left

doesn't stop me too much.

It's a year now
since I got this injury.

I stood up on the beach
and I was shooting at them.

But they threw two
or three grenades.

They launched them. First one
missed me, second one missed me,

third one missed me.
Number four came and hit my arm.

They didn't have to chop
my arm off – it's not useless.

Because I go and fight
for my beliefs, God helped me.

We're the first people ever
to film Ishmael and his men.

Yet I don't get the feeling
he really trusts us.

His way of getting closer
is a kind of baptism of fire,

if gentler than those he gives
both Papua New Guinea soldiers

and the men he's training
on this patrol.

What my sound man and I think
might be a smoke bomb

turns out to be tear gas.

It's Ishmael's way
of saying welcome,

a short sharp dose
of Bougainvillian reality.

After a good cough,
cried and laughed together,

he loosens up and radios for us
to meet Francis Ona.

It's all Francis's initiative
in starting the war

and I just got up behind it.

Every part of the island has got
minerals in it and Francis saw that

these things would bring change.

Change to spoil the environment
and the future generations.

But before we leave,

Ishmael gets second thoughts
about us seeing Francis.

A makeshift generator has
blown upon our camera batteries

while it was charging.

Last night when I slept

God told me that tomorrow
there will be something happen.

And all of a sudden
the battery blew up.

I made up my mind to tell you that
you will not go to Francis Ona.

Otherwise you will face
some problems there,

because your battery blew up.

It's another glimpse
at the strange grip

that govern superstition hold
over Bougainville.

Since the boat trip in I'm no longer
inclined to laugh at superstition.

But I explain that if TV crews read
all the things that go wrong

as bad omens then the medium
would cease to exist.

Reluctantly Ishmael concedes
to our heathen ignorance.

He gives us the two days
of torturous uphill clambering

that will take us to Francis Ona,
and the heart of the war.

When I'm not grasping for air,

I get an idea of
why the Bougainvillians

have such fierce reverence
for the place they call

Meekamui or "sacred island"

and why they could no longer sit by
and watch its minerals being plundered.

We have seen our valleys,
we have seen our forests,

we have seen our rivers,
beautiful rivers,

beautiful trees, beautiful forests

literaly thrown into dust.

And we will not allow that
to happen.

On route to Francis, we come across
his vice-president, Joseph Kabui,

who puts the history of the place
into perspective for us.

Ever since the French explorer
Louis de Bougainville

put his name on the map in 1768

the island has gone through

an endless game
of colonial "pass the parcel".

Geographically, ethnically
and culturally,

it was always part
of the Solomon Islands,

but a hundred years ago, the imperial
powers decided to change all that.

The situation we are in is not
only unique for Bougainvillians

but there are many
African countries

that the superpowers
merely just carved them out

put a line right through as

"OK, this part belongs to you,
this part belong to me".

A deal was struck
between Germany and Britain.

Germany saying "OK, I'll give
Western Samoa to you, Britain"

and Britain saying "OK,
I'll give Bougainville to you."

Germany didn't keep
Boungainville long, though,

as Australia grabbed it during the First World War.

During the second, Japan snatched
the island for a few years

before Australia grabbed it back.

And in the meantime, it ended up
as part of Papua New Guinea

which got independence in 1975.

Bougainville declared independence
two weeks earlier,

not that anyone listened,

and it took another thirteen years
for war to break out.

At last we find the man

who can really explain
why things suddenly changed.

Francis Ona is portrayed by many as
a humorless hardline revolutionary.

I suspect they never really met him,

because it certainly isn't
the impression I get.

- Hey, Tokapu hasn't come yet.
- Call him, then.

I've told him already,
but he's taking it easy.

We're going to get more firewood
– this time for the widow.

So this is Papua New Guinea's
public enemy number one.

When he's not running either the war

or the self-declared
Republic of Bougainville,

Francis goes gardening.

My fighting on Bougainville
is based on these factors.

One, we are fighting for man
and his culture

and two, land and environment.

And the third one
is independence.

Francis used to work
for a mining company

called Bougainville Copper Limited.

It was a company
he would later destroy.

The reason,
as it's always been on Bougainville

was the land
and the bounty it holds.

This is the Panguna mine.

It's a development that has taken
place starting back in the 1960s.

My people here were very ignorant

and they didn't know that
in the future

there would be a very big mine
here, which is very destructive.

Before reaching
the final layers of overburden,

they cleared 550 acres of jungle,

and sliced away the unconsolidated
volcanic rock and ash.

Bougainville Copper Limited, or BCL,

is mainly owned by
an Australian subsidiary

of the world's mining giant,
Britain's Rio Tinto Zinc.

In 1967, the company
was given the go-ahead

to excavate what was then the world's
biggest open cast copper mine,

500 meters deep and covering
about 7 square kilometers

or the size of London's West-End

where Rio Tinto's headquarters
are based.

It turned out to be
a disastrous mistake,

especially as they dug the hole
right beneath Francis's village.

In Bougainville, you don't come
between the people and their land.

We Bougainvillians,
we rely on our land.

Land is our lifeline,
land is our mother

and it's our protection.

This place was a very big jungle

which is a hunting ground
for the people of this area.

We had big trees.

Also there was a very big hill here.

Right in the middle here
there was a very big hill

much higher than the top
of those mountains up there.

And now it's all disappeared.

So now this land, which belongs to
my people, has become a barren land

and I don't know how we're going
to use this land back again.

When the locals protested
about the huge hole

the multinational wanted to dig at
the fertile heart of their island,

the land was taken by force.

Of the 3 billion US dollars
the mine made in profits,

only a thousandth was given back
to the people who owned the land.

Rio Tinto Zinc had started to
create the most expensive enemy.

In the meantime,
the inhabitants were shunted off

into makeshift resettlements
on desolate ground.

That's the Dapera village

and you can see that's the standard
of building they built for people.

It's really like a shanty town.

BCL was not being too much genuine
to how you can resettle the people.

This school was built
by people themselves.

Even the company and the government

did not give any support.

Just imagine, right in the middle
of the giant copper mine

multi-multi-million worth,
and here we are -

people building their own schools

out of their own pockets.

But the thing that really stuck
in the craw of the Bougainvillians

was the pollution
spilling over their land.

Waste from the mine
to the tune of about a billion tons

ended up flowing
down the Jaba river,

contaminating it with copper,
mercury, lead and arsenic.

It killed off the wildlife and
turned whole forests into moonscape.

The land still bears
the garish scars.

This is where all the pollution has
been drained from the Panguna mine.

You cannot drink water
now down there.

There are no fish,
virtually nothing.

And this will be, maybe
for the next 200 years.

This whole river sytem
has been destroyed.

Even you can't swim in this river.

Things hit boiling point
in late 1988

when the young landowners'
association led by Francis

demanded both the closure of the mine
and 10 billion dollars in damages.

The story goes that
the BCL management laughed at them,

10 billion being far more
than the mine was worth.

Francis did not like
being laughed at.

He left the meeting in a hurry,

broke into the local mining depot

and stole 50 kilos
of high explosives.

He and his friends decided
to close down the mine themselves

with some well targeted sabotage.

Panicked about losing what was
nearly half of its export earnings,

Papua New Guinea
sent in the riot police.

They burned down homes,
beat people up, killed a few

and generally created
enough backlash

to provide Francis's
fledgling guerilla force

with all the recruits it needed.

Rag-tag bunch though the
Bougainville Revolutionary Army were,

their very name showed that
they were now raising the stakes.

They didn't just want
the mine closed down,

they wanted independence too.

It was all getting a bit much
for the riot squad

so in came the army,

the Papua New Guinea Defense Force
(PNG DF)

Rio Tinto Zinc abandoned the mine,

and a David and Goliath war was on,

with BRA's stones and slings
versus PNG helicopters.

It was then that Francis realized

they weren't fighting
just Papua New Guinea,

but Australia as well.

Australia's ex-colonial interests

meant it was already
training and arming the PNG DF.

Now it also suspended
a Foreign Crimes Act

allowing its pilots to fly the
helicopters it suddenly supplied.

Helicopters that were
quickly turned into gunships

and trained mainly
on an unarmed population.

Faced with such
brutal and powerful weaponry,

the Bougainvillians are forced into the
first of a long list of innovations.

This is the first homemade equipment
that we made at the start of war.

You've got a sling here
and you get this sling

hooked on here.

Put the arrow in there.
That goes into that pipe.

And when you trigger this,
it goes off and

the arrow flies.

We make our own guns

using all the material around the
place, been left also in Panguna.

Pick them up and then use to build.

Cut down all the machines,
cut down all the pieces,

and join them together.

Like this one. All this has been made
here and we labelled them

"Made in Meekamui"

And it's got a serial number.

So if part of the equipment
has been destroyed

in the field, they can come back

and then build their own guns.

And this is how we build
confidence in the force.

So just imagine

with one sling weapon
winning a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR).

And from that single SLR we went
on to winning now virtually

about 200 to 300
very powerful weapons.

This one is resting now,
having a holiday or whatever.

Resting for good !

I saw the PNG DF came just to
kill the villagers and civilians.

I went out to Panguna
and I saw Francis.

I asked him :
"Where are the weapons ?"

And he told me :
"There is no weapon."

"We will only start with bows
and arrows and stones and sticks."

I did the training myself.
The tactics, the tricks

they're mine. And we made them,
put everything into action

and we captured
two high-powered rifles.

The boys saw how I fought
and they thought that

I was a good leader,
so they started following me.

So that's how I ended up
holding the position of the BRA.

There are no clear front lines
in the jungle.

Even though they've made it their own,

Ishmael and his boys know
the PNG DF may never be far away.

That's the place
where I usually train my boys.

I usually use live bullets

and sometimes I've wounded
some of the boys, soldiers.

So that's how they
got their experience.

How many have you wounded ?

Twelve of them.

Very badly ?

Yeah, one was very badly injured

and the other eleven of them
were just a scratch.

Around 15,000 Bougainvillians have
been killed during the war

out of a population
only ten times that.

Yet most haven't been slaugthered
by PNG DF's munitions,

like these ones mortered
during the church service.

The majority have died from
the lack of essential supplies

created by Papua New Guinea and
Australia's most insidious weapon,

the seven-year siege of the island.

By early 1990, the PNG DF was losing
control of most of Bougainville.

So it decided to establish
a sea blockade around the island,

which it hoped would
turn the population

against the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army.

As a quick glance at History
could have predicted,

quite the opposite happened.

With bodies piling up from the lack
of food, shelter and medicine,

the BRA and the people rose against
the challenge of the blockade together.

Forced to learn the hard way that
necessity is the mother of invention,

their solutions came from the land.

With the blockade being imposed
by Papua New Guinea government

we found that every family
must be self-sufficient

for the foodstuff.
That's why we have to

make our own gardens.

We got a shifting cultivation
type of gardening here

and we have integrated
every food crop that we can find.

William was a businessman

now a refugee
from PNG held territory.

He shows us the green things
he's had to develop.

This whole area is full of gardens.

How the people here survive
– because the soil is so rich

it doesn't matter if you're going
to do the farming on one single area

we're still going to get food.
Food is still going to go on.

What garden we've got
– we've got sweet potato.

We've got bananas,
we've got cassava.

We've got a lot of taros
we've planted.

Sugar cane, and then we got pawpaws.

We've got a lot of yams round here.

We've got onions.

Corns and tomatoes.

Peanuts

Potatoes

People – it's very hard for them to hungry.
People in Bougainville alone

they survive. That's why we say
we can't depend on other people.

We got a blessing. Gardens from here, it's
no end. And you've got bush from the river

up to another mountain.
As you see, all the whole green.

It's all over – that's Bougainville.

Yet no plant from Bougainville comes
close to the importance of the coconut.

We know we've been fed
and sheltered by it,

but then Ishmael shows us what a perfectly
packaged life-support system it is

and how his people have learned
to make use of every part of it.

Coconut milk has lots of iron in it,
which strengthens you for walking.

You squeeze the skin and put it
by the fire and when it's hot

you can squeeze it and if you have
a sore you can put it on the sore.

Down here is the husk. You take it
off and put it on the fire to burn.

If you have plenty of mosquitoes,
as inhabited places get mosquitoes,

we use this to get rid of them.

The cook's milking the flesh there.

Coconut milk's used
to cook greens in.

Coconut oil for a lamp.

This is a new thing
we've learned in the crisis.

And we use coconut leaves for baskets.

We've got soap
made from coconut oil.

This is first grade oil.

There are three grades – A, B and C.

This is the A grade we use
to clean our guns.

In a war for the environment,

it helps to have the environment
on your side.

It's for if you have a nose blocked.

We use it for clearing the nose

so that you can smell
anything on the road

just like enemies coming
– you can just smell them.

When we found that we didn't
have very effective equipment

we developed our own booby traps.

And that is made from herbs
which we lay on the track

where the enemy is moving.
And then when they go by it,

they start to develop sickness.

In one of the booby traps
your testicles just swollen up

and your penis just enlarge.

But it's for healing
rather than for hurting,

that the Bougainvillians
have developped

the bush medicine
of their ancestors.

With the PNG DF driving much of
the population into the jungle,

thousands were dying
in unsanitized childbirth

and from preventable diseases like
malaria, pneumonia and dysentery.

Tetanus from a badly
handled machete for instance

could prove lethal

before the island has once again
made the land their ally.

That's a piece of asbestos.

Is that from the mine ?

Yes. From the power pylons.

We got various herbs put into
the hollow pipe of the pawpaw.

And with the steam blown into that
area it's going to dry up very soon.

Francis is always
on call as local GP

and his presidential HQ
doubles as the surgery.

We got herbs here,
certain medicine

which locates the areas
that's been damaged

and blood is not flowing well.

If there is no sickness
it just slides through like this.

But when it finds areas where it is
not functioning well it will stick.

It sticks like glue.

The claims of Francis and
his fellow healers amaze me.

Being able to cure malaria, leprosy,

appendicitis and cancer without operating,

developing a herbal contraceptive
which doesn't harm women,

having seen what else
this people can do,

I can no longer just dismiss it,

especially so many patients
back it up.

And at least Francis isn't so sure
about all the cures.

We have given treatment
to some person

because he had a bad AIDS disease
and sent him home.

But we didn't have proof,
any medical reports by doctors

so that's why we THINK
we have treated someone with AIDS.

So Francis invites anyone with AIDS
to come to test the Bougainvillian cure.

Let's go gardening now.

Besides what they get from the land,

the islanders have found
uses for absolutely anything

that Bougainville Copper Limited
and its employees left behind.

Though in a place where
the infrastructure's gone to pot

things constantly
require improvised repairs.

That's my car over there.
It's not actually mine

but when I fought, everything
just got into my hands.

The PNG DF they came,
they shot at me.

And here are some
of the bullet holes.

I don't know how it happened

but I was in the hands of the Lord
so I was safe.

Along with his truck,
his generator, his exercise gyms,

Ishmael brings anything else
he can carry

back from successful operations.

On a blockaded island,
it's the only way to go shopping.

Well, that's Asou.
He likes playing with the ball.

I took the ball
from one operation in Buka.

That's part of the victory, I think.
I go and give it to my kids.

Well, that's where we play – that's
the music shop, the music station.

We teach ourselves how to play.

Oh, this is the place.

It's really not good, but we like
it being here, I like being here.

It just reminds me of the simple life.

My hand is not really good, but

this is the rhythm.

And the lead is over there and
that's the keyboards over there.

The scavengers mecca on Bougainville
is the Panguna mine itself

and the town built
to house its workers.

After devastating it to make sure
the mine is never returned,

Francis and his fellow villagers
ended up having to go back

to salvage anything
not rooted in concrete.

Because along with
getting the Bougainvillians

to start from scratch
with food and medicine,

the PNG DF forced open
many of the houses,

and gave them THAT problem to solve.

We have to make our own locks
so what we do is

we go down to Panguna mine and get
all the locks and strip them out

and make our own keys.

Using all the rubbish from the Panguna
mine we can build good houses.

As you can see, bits and pieces
of light, lighting up our houses.

Switchboxes.

I know this people can make
something out of nothing,

but I still can't work out how
they can light whole villages.

William laughs and
takes us to his local workshop.

As you see, all the parts and all the
machines, like water pump, barbed wire,

we've got something to do with it.
Some people, they might throw it away.

We don't, we collect parts.
We can make things out of it.

The islanders have dragged
the mine's debris,

sometimes for weeks
across the mountains,

to create that sort of setup.

And it's in places like this

that they've cobbled together
their own ecological power supply :

hydroelectricity.

These are the intake pipes
for the hydro

and from there it goes right
down to the generator itself.

After Papua New Guinea
government has blockaded us

and we couldn't have
any petrol or diesel

we have to develop something
to get a power supply.

Here we've got this mini hydro.

Using all the rubbish, all the pipes
and spare parts from old cars

we managed to develop our own hydro
which we use for ligting up the villages.

We've got about fifty to sixty now
running this type of small hydro.

Down there with
the PNG DF establishment

there is virtually not much
lighting up, no electricity.

Maybe it's money or something

to run those generators
but here in the bush

we can have hydro
going for 24 hours a day.

I think with the blockade still on
that would be very nice.

Because then we will be learning
more and more and advance

into near future.

So that new things will come

new ideas grow.

New ideas have been growing
wherever I look,

but the high point of this eco revolution

has to be the way they're still driving
around without any proper fuel supply

after seven years of blockade.

The secret, as I should have guessed,
is growing all around me.

We get together.
Get the power of the BRA.

This power now runs our island.

Francis once stated

that the war against
Papua New Guinea could be won in a week.

The war against Australia
had to take a little bit longer.

And by 1996 the Bougainvillian
Revolutionary Army was winning.

PNG's last big offensive
turned into its biggest row

and when we get to the island,

the BRA hold about
eighty percent of the territory.

You can see that
that's the Toya valley.

Further down where you can see
the last mountain.

That's where
the last PNG DF camp is.

That's Bolavi and that's where they end.

They don't come any further.

The PNG DF don't come any further,

not just because they're beaten,

but also because
they hardly care anymore.

In the war for hearts and minds,
the BRA were always winning.

And when no other country
came to Bougainvillians aid,

the people found support
in a different realm.

Because the colonial legacy
they most embraced

was that of the missionnaries.

I think without Jesus,
I wouldn't have come this far.

Just because without that,

the superpowers,
the Australian government,

or whoever has been helping
the Papua New Guinea government

migh have beaten me
a long time ago.

Why do all sorts of problems
try to spoil this place ?

Why do you get into angry fights

for a bit of ground or something ?

When you fail to commit to Jesus

you will fall down
with all kinds of temptation.

We will thank Father God for
the operation we've just completed

where not one man found an enemy,
not one man lost his life.

My uncle, he sees things.

He normally comes with us

and when we are
in the enemy territory,

he can feel, he can see.

His is vision from God that
the enemies are going to attack

or if they are in the ambush we can
change our plans and operation

the same minute
when there's a vision from God.

Follow my prayer.
Father, I thank you

For everything we've done you only
get the fame that is due to you.

Thank you, Lord Father. We have not
lost the life of any of our brothers

in this operation. Therefore
we thank you, Father God.

You will get praise,
you will bless each of us

and bless us again
to go on another operation.

Amen.

Okay. Go to your homes
clean your guns for their next use.

Once we've broken enough bread
and sweat together,

Ishmael trusts us enough to reveal
the secret charm he uses in combat.

We use it for poisoning the gun.

And we put it on the tip of the gun
so that when we shoot an enemy

automatically when the bullet
goes inside there are snakes

small snakes that usually
come out of the man's body.

So it's just like
we are poisoning them.

But God's power is unlimited. It's
just like when you charge a battery

when you put it into a charging device
and it charges more power then

That is what I've learned and
I've given up using this.

Now that Ishmael sees our camera
batteries in a more positive way,

he lets us in further.

I'm not proud to be a fighter.

I'm proud because my name's
written in the book of life.

And I'm saved, and that is
what I'm proud of.

It's just like a miracle that God
helped me while I was injured here.

When I lay down
the Lord spoke to me and said :

You are only half an inch
away from death.

So I said : Yes, I'll choose you
and I'm going to follow you.

That's why I really want to be some
kind of man preaching the gospel.

It's just a miracle
that God has saved Bougainville.

The islanders' devotion
seemed to pay off in early 1997

when God moved in one
of his most mysterious ways.

Papua New Guinea basically admitted
defeat by hiring mercenaries

to do what the PNG DF couldn't.

It forked out 36 million dollars

to the London-based company
Sandline International,

and presented the BRA with the biggest
armed threat that it ever faced.

And then, lo and behold, the PNG DF
itself came to Bougainville's aid.

Humiliated by the very idea
of needing foreign troops,

and even more angry at the price,

the underfunded PNG soldiers
rallied huge popular support,

arrested the mercenaries,
and threw them out.

If they had come and used rockets
everywhere, I think they would win.

However, this equipment they have
– it's only men that uses it.

The God of Bougainville
has spoken to me like this.

So we believe that we will get
all the modern weapons of theirs.

Because every time
the way is blocked

as if a brick wall
– then a way out appears.

Finding a way out is something

the Bougainvillians tend to do
with startling regularity.

And none amazes me more than
the way they fuel the transport

so crucial to fighting a war.

With hundreds of abandoned
mine vehicles littering the island,

how were the BRA
going to run them without diesel?

Finally William shows us.

This is the complete thing
of scraping the coconut

- from scraping to squeeze
to ferment.

And then the last thing
is to cook the oil.

For one litre oil – maybe about
15 dry coconuts for a litre.

That's first grade this oil.

It's beautiful.

Not only is coconut oil
far less polluting than diesel,

you also get double the mileage.

Ishmael laughs that after the war,

they're really going
to scare Esso and Shell.

The coconut is helping to create
a separate state for our island.

If the coconut wasn't
part of the revolution

I can't think how we could
create this state.

And everyone here is convinced

that what they've achieved despite
having everything against them

proves beyond doubt that
they can run their own state

especially with
all the ecological innovations

they've sworn to developing further

when they become independent.

With the closure of the mine, we have
been blessed, we have been blessed.

We have been blessed
to see abundance of food,

we've been blessed
with breathing fresh air.

If we win this certainly is going to
become quite an important precedent.

In fact, Bougainville has
already become a precedent,

inspiring many other
Pacific communities

having holes dug
in their backyards.

Across the region,

resistance to and compensation
from ecological devastation

has upped considerably.

And when, thanks to
the mercenary debacle,

the news broke of this obscure
bunch of islanders

beating Papua New Guinea,
and Australia, and Rio Tinto Zinc,

suddenly the international
community got interested

in beginning peace talks,
in mid-1997.

Francis, who has fears of winning
the war but losing the peace,

stays clear if the compromise
is involved in the proposed deal.

He is labelled a hardliner for this,

but maybe that's because he's not
the kind of leader we're used to,

and knows how easily
Bougainville could lose its way

in the jungle of
international politics.

During my high school days,

I was appointed to sweep
the principal's house.

But on one occasion I found him,
he was doing my job.

He was cleaning up the toilet.

And I asked him :
"How could you, the principal,

do such a thing ?"

And what he told me was that
the leader must come down

and clean the dirt for his people.

And that tought me a very very big
lesson which I'm looking forward

to teach other leaders
in all parts of the world -

the leader must
clean the boots of his people.

The peace process though
is creating a rift

between Francis and one of
the prime movers behind him,

his vice-president Joseph Kabui.

This is it.
We will either make it or break it.

And because it is now, as I see it,

it's now a game of survival,
political survival.

And there is a clear hard
political tension right now.

Change is imminent from the way
things are now looking.

What do you mean by change ?

Change of political leadership,
that is.

Our president will be changed,
he will be changed some time soon.

And who would be the new president ?

Well, it's up to the people to
decide and up to BRA to decide.

I will wait and see
how this will go about.

But it will probably be you,
will be ?

Well, if it comes to me,
I'm ready and willing.

Joseph also has Ishmael's support,

but despite their different methods,

they and Francis definitely have
the same end in mind :

independence with a capital "I".

Without independence we are looking
at more bloodshed.

We are looking at more destruction
on Bougainville

through the means of the
Papua New Guinea government

and Australian government, because
they've got the mining interests.

They'll bring back all the multinational
companies that destruct all the land.

And is that freedom ?
Is that peace ?

This mining won't do.

Because it gives problems to all
future generations on Bougainville.

And we don't want this to happen.

We don't want our descendants to say :

Our forefathers didn't give us a good
future, they've spoilt things for us,

thrown us away,
and we've ended up like this.

Man on this earth, on planet earth,
depend on land, depend on environment,

and I wish to ask everyone,
every leader of any nation,

to take care of the land

so that people on this planet earth
can be saved.

The future, rather than
tales of passed woes,

is what all the Bougainvillians
I've met focus upon,

despite the destruction of their
land, eight years of isolation,

untold atrocities and
up to 15,000 deaths.

The impression I take home is of
a people who don't seem to know

the meaning of self-pity,
let alone pessimism.

Before we leave to run
the blockade on our way out,

Francis sends us off
with one of the song he writes

for his regular communal sing-sings.

BRA is fighting for Meekamui.

The people are crying for it,

and will get independence

and their own government.

All of us local people think now

and our mother cries for us,

BRA is fighting PNG,

So we can have true happiness

all over Bougainville.

Since we left Bougainville,

the peace talks have led
to a permanent cease-fire,

the blockade has been lifted,

and reconciliation and
restoration are taking place.

Yet Papua New Guinea is still dodging
the central demand of the BRA,

a referendum on independence.

Things aren't over yet,

but whatever happens, when it comes
to self-help and ecology,

the Bougainvillians have
already given the world

many lessons they can learn,
if it ever chooses to.

I wish to thank PNG government
for imposing blockade

because if blockade wasn't imposed

on Bougainville
we wouldn't develop this far.

Nobody has been trained -

it's all natural talent
that we are developing.

I think with the blockade
the Bougainville war

is like an educational centre
or furthermore I could say

it's a university for all of us
who are on Bougainville.

Since the completion of this film,

Joseph Kabui was elected President of
the new Bougainville People's Congress.

Francis Ona decided not to stand.